I am not a board game geek like some SVG PCV or one co-worker (I was gonna link to his very impressive 100+ board game collection but it appears that is no longer a possibility). I did play Monopoly when I was a kid. Still, I contend that board games are a great tool in [...]
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I discovered Faiz Ahmed Faiz when I was a senior in high school (FSc for those that know). My mother warned me specifically not to touch some authors as they were godless communists or had mature content. Faiz was one of them (Manto and Faraz the others). I bought Dast-e Saba (Wind’s Palm) at a [...]
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Empires aren’t supposed to beat a hastily arranged retreat, Niall. What gives? Paul Bremer hands a blue folder to a confused older judge and a truly evil-looking Allawi and the Empire has left the building. The Bush administration’s gamble here is pretty obvious. Paul Bremer boards the plane. Shi’a, Sunni, Kurds explode onto each other [...]
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If I had one superhero, one legend, in my youth it was the amazing Imran Khan- Captain of Pakistan Cricket Team through late 80s. I remember that poster in Aamir’s room of Imran’s bowling action and how I tried oh-so-sadly to emulate that. Got my ass kicked. Imran Khan cemented his legend by leading Pakistan [...]
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Poor Jamali. He was doomed ever since he started “speaking from the heart” and getting too chummy with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). For the last 2 months, numerous rumors of his resignation or firng circulated. The writing was indeed on the wall. Chosen as a rubber-stamp PM, he did his job admirably until his relationships [...]
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“It was all Kiplingesque,” said Charlie Wilson of his first encounter with the Afghani Mujahideen. Sadly, both the tragedy and the irony of that statement seemed to be lost on him. Charlie Wilson’s War by George Crile is billed as a “riveting inside account of the last battle of the Cold War” by the publisher [...]
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Blake informs me that Bryan Adams is HUGE in South India. Alanis Morisette is HUGE in Pakistan. Explain.
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I didn’t take my jacket because, well, it is LATE JUNE. I am absolutely freezing my ass here. Sure, sure, tell me about the Bay Area weather. I do not care. I am cold and damp and I want to go home to Chicago and embrace the midwestern sky. My talk is over and for [...]
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I am in Berkeley CA for two days giving a talk on something or the other. Not quite sure but it is tomorrow morning at 9:45. There is shopping planned. Pub crawl. And maybe a movie as well. I love San Francisco. update: No, sven, I have just been informed that my talk is entitled [...]
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Marvel announced that they will be “transcreating” Spider Man into a a local Indian variety, Pavitr Prabhakar, so that Indian kids can enjoy it more. The original post here was all about the “local” v “global”. It got accidently deleted this morning as I was rubbing sleep from my eyes. What did I have to [...]
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India, Pakistan Establishing Nuke Hotline ———— “Hello” [silence] “Hello..Ji? Who is it, please? Koon Bol Raha Hai?” [click] ————- “Hello” [chatting in the backround] “Hello, kon? Jamali? I told you this number was secret.” [click] ————- “Hello, bhai” “Namaskar. This is Priyanka. Is Ayla Baji around?” “No. She is not home. How are you, baiti?” [...]
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Once the dust is settled in Iraq, The Daily Show, should release a compilation DVD of their Iraqi coverage[.mov link]. Besides Jon Stewart, very few journalists have been on my must-read list when it comes to Iraq but Anthony Shadid and Rajiv Chandrasekaran of WaPo are tops of that list. Today, there is the first [...]
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I have to submit book orders for the Introduction to Islamic History course I will be teaching in the Fall. So far, I have: Michael Cook’s The Koran: A Very Short Introduction. Jonathan Berkey’s The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800. Malise Ruthven’s Historical Atlas of Islam. Here are my [...]
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Jokingly, I said during a workshop paper that my dissertation is part of the new, emerging genre of General Studies (as opposed to Subaltern Studies. get it?). No one really laughed. Bah Humbug! to them – the armies a-marching, folks. The General I study, Muhammad b. Qasim, plays a particular role in the psyche and [...]
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Pakistan sacked Javed Miandad yesterday. I have to say that not only was this needed but way overdue. Miandad was a great cricketer but he sucked as a coach. Just in the last four years, the man has been fired, he resigned, he got left behind in New Zealand with the luggage. And of course, [...]
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Mexico’s President Fox came to UChicago and all I got was these lousy pictures. I guess there was no media allowed so these pictures are worth money…uh, maybe not. They are from Nancy’s office – which is the office opposite mine. I missed the Mariachi band, ’cause I was at lunch. Sad about that, really. [...]
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Naim Sahib forwarded a BBC story, I had missed, about tall, brown, brave, greased-up and ready to fight pehlwans. A persian word, pehlwan, means warrior or champion. It used to denote those who excelled on the battleground, besting their opponents. The greatest pehlwan was the Persian warrior-king Rustum [don't be scared of the persian, just [...]
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Seymour Hersh stopped by the University last week. I meant to write about it earlier but one thing or another delayed it. The talk was brilliant. He was smart, funny, engaging with the audience, full of vitriol and condemnation. He grew up right near the University (on 47th & Drexel) and said some kind words [...]
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Looks like I picked the wrong movie to write about. While Dev is getting ho-hum reviews, another movie released on the same day is getting stone-pelted and the cinema-halls are getting burned. The culprit is Razdan’s Girlfriend which is a love triangle featuring two girls. And no, the boy is NOT the most desired one. [...]
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Once in a while you come across a piece of writing that knocks your socks off. Sean O’Hagan’s Banger and Machinations is one such article which appeared in Sunday’s Guardian. Let me be honset that it probably will not do for you what it did for me. See, it hit my three sweet academic spots: [...]
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